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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

In other news, to battle the persistent flat tire issue (which of course had been more to do with my stubborn ignorance about high pressure tires then anything else), I purchased (a few weeks ago) both a floor pump (better than the sad one I had already) and a hand pump by Lezyne. The floor pump is not only efficient but its also pretty, but the best part is it has this lovely screw on system rather than the annoying lever situation most pumps seem to have. (And right now with a sprained wrist I am exceptionally glad of not having to deal with a lever at the valve stem.) The screw section flips for either shrader or presta valves, in other words, hurray!

but now we enter snow season, just a few hundred more miles, then it can snow!

Goal: 2,200 miles by 9.24.10Miles ridden to date: 1,867Miles left to goal: 333Days left: +67 over

Sunday, November 28, 2010

I went to get Charlie and look what we find? Broken spoke, which I do not yet possess the knowledge to fix, so back to Cambridge Bicycle we went, and Charlie got to spend Thanksgiving with his bicycle buddies.

In other news this Thanksgiving was a little different this year at homestead. When we (these siblings of mine) asked our mother the usual question, i.e. what do you want for Christmas this year? (or some similar wording); the reply we received was, "A dumpster." After being taken aback for a few moments she elaborated that she would like us to sift through all those old boxes and forgotten furniture that are covered with dust and live in the attic. Boxes that sensible, normal people leave there and forget about for ages, until say they have a midlife crisis and want to wear their old leather jacket and listen to genuine LPs again... but that's beside the point. Besides the dumpster and filling the dumpster and sorting and stacking and throwing; generally breaking the laws of physics and figuring, "Does that all really fit in there?" There was a box of bicycle stuff.

Unbeknownst to me my father was quite the cyclist in the years before my birth. All sorts of bicycle goodies! (And almost contemporaneous with Charlie!) I rescued them before they were flung into the abyss of no return, the dumpster. Thusly have I acquired a few things which I cannot at present utilize, but perhaps the fine folks at the shop can? We shall see... But more is that I have found an unexpected something in common with the father I barely got the chance to know before he was taken from me.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Theoretically this shouldn't take much longer:) Its been raining/windy/gross quite frequently so I'm not increasing my miles as quickly as I'd like, but sometimes things don't go exactly as we'd like and that's part of life...but that doesn't mean we give up or stop trying. Instances of hypothermia have taught me, the hard way, how to layer better and that what we think we know to be correct, in this instance, about proper layering (or in life) may not be correct.

And so sometimes we learn the hard way (in life and in cycling) that the advice in the driver's manual, that water freezes on a bridge before regular roadways, is indeed true. And sometimes it means you completely wipe out on the ice on the pedestrian bridge and get snazzy green, yellow, and purplish blue bruises to prove your newly gained knowledge.

Goal: 2,200 miles by 9.24.10Miles ridden to date: 1,812Miles left to goal: 388Days left: +50 over